Win Installer broke

[Rainwalker]

Greetings........Windows Installer is broke on my system.......no need to mention what a huge problem this is. Is there a tool to fix it. I would rather not go into the registry manually and attempt to repair it...

[Tommy]

Just install it again
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/wininstallnt.html
or at MS
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5FBC5470-B259-4733-A914-A956122E08E8&displaylang=en

[Rainwalker]

I saw that link prior to my posting, but thought it would need the installer to install itself
:blink:

[Tommy]

-{ Quote: "I saw that link prior to my posting, but thought it would need the installer to install itself
:blink:" }-
No, this installs the Win-Installer application and the needed service again. That's all you have to do :thumb:

[Rainwalker]

Greetings Tommy......this did not work...i tried in both Normal and Safe mode.....any other considerations ?

[ravin]

Rainwalker have a look here http://support.microsoft.com/?id=893803 hope it helps.

[tgell]

Rainwalker,
Try these links. Hope it helps.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315353

[GlobalForce]

One thing after another with you! :D;)

Here, most common Windows Installer issues on one page, 'bout a third of the way's down on Kelly's Korner (http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm).
~ Not sure why nobody ever think's to look there first. Oh well .... ~

Edit: Just in case .... do you have an "Official" install source of sp2, or your source is sp1 and sp2 was through update?
Msi version? Is the Recovery Console available (again, just in case)?

Edit II: Forum comment (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=111780) about the program mentioned in the post below mine, plus one other you may find of interest.


GF

[osip]

I suggest that you make a "googling" after a splendid little freebe called dial-a-fix...It has repair functions for win installer issues...

[Rainwalker]

Thanks all....no time at the moment to look at links, but will do so soon.......as i said my system got very corrupted and i have been slowly getting it back together...........really HATE reinstalling the OS so i bang away............thanks again :)

[GlobalForce]

"As I said, my system got very .... and I have been slowly" Exploration's in futility?

Trying to re-assemble and straighten out what your experiencing is for some of us a complete waste of you know what. It usually take's day's unless your an outright engineer, even then I'd remain skeptical. :dry: Tell me you could re-install with all your driver's, program's (take's what, less than a minute for the average install), and setting's (as registry edit's merged - one, two, three) laid down in no more than three to five hour's instead of the countless day's and day's fumbling around dealing with an over-abundance of error messages and whathaveyou's and I'd say without question, "GET A MOVE ON!"

Envision .... a brand spanking new system free from probably most nonsense we window's user's go through on what sometime's seem's a daily basis, a chance to NOT install app's we sort of questioned important, lay down a couple of partition's for experimentation (if you were to choose), not to mention integrating sp1/sp2 source file's the right way (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900871) (in case sp2 wasn't included on the source install). Good practice in case the time's between get to long, lest we forget. :o

Is it me, or are there many other's out there who have a hard time viewing it this way? :D Hey, on the bright side such a problem present's opportunity of it's own in the form of individual solution's for web traveller's with isolated system shortcoming's .... has to make someone's day every now and then!

Best of luck to you all the same RW in your "struggle to persevere." Know there's a motivated support group here for you and anyone else who might be venturing for a fix!


GF

[Rainwalker]

Thank you for taking the time to write as you did GF.....i am aware of all you wrote, but first and foremost, i should have mentioned way back when, I AM STUBBORN...........yes, one could go and on, concerning the pros and cons of such a view, but i is what i is..........i have always known that time is drawing closer to the dreaded reinstall.......i use dialup
thanks again though...
BTW would you share your brand of coffee :D

[Rainwalker]

-{ Quote: "Rainwalker have a look here http://support.microsoft.com/?id=893803 hope it helps." }-
Hello Raven...The download seems to install ok, but does not.......still receive error message...

[Rainwalker]

-{ Quote: "Rainwalker,
Try these links. Hope it helps.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315353" }-
Hello tgell.......have long since tried this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315353 did nothing

can only see about 25% of this page ??? can not see Method #2..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346

[ravin]

-{ Quote: "Hello Raven...The download seems to install ok, but does not.......still receive error message..." }-If you have your OS system disk trying running sfc /scannow at a command prompt to correct system file errors.8)

[tgell]

Rainwalker,
Do you use firefox. Sometimes when I used firefox, I could not see the whole page on these support sites of Microsoft. Anyway, here is method #2

Method 2: Reinstall the Windows Installer
To reinstall the Windows Installer, rename the damaged Windows Installer files, and then reinstall the Windows Installer. To do so: 1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
3. At the command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER, where Drive is the drive where Windows is installed and where %Windir% is the folder where Windows is installed:
attrib -r -s -h drive:\%Windir%\system32\dllcache
For example, type
attrib -r -s -h c:\windows\system32\dllcache
Note If you are using Windows 98, type system instead of system32.
4. At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line:
ren msi.dll msi.old
ren msiexec.exe msiexec.old
ren msihnd.dll msihnd.old
5. At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER.
6. Restart your computer.
7. Update the Windows Installer files on your hard disk to the latest version. Windows Installer 2.0 is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. • For Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows 98:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cebbacd8-c094-4255-b702-de3bb768148f&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cebbacd8-c094-4255-b702-de3bb768148f&displaylang=en)
• For Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b6140f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f&DisplayLang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b6140f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f&DisplayLang=en)
• For Windows XP: For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
893803 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803/) Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (3.1.4000.2435) is available

[iceni60]

my windows installer always use to break. the easist fix for me was to merge the MSI registry settings back in to the registry. it should be safe to just double click and merge, but it's probably safer to save the key first, or just make a registry backup.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/msi_assoc.zip

the download is from this page -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

MSI File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSI files)

you can also make sure the srvices is starting up correctly if that doesn't work.

[iceni60]

there's more stuff here if you need it?? it's 2 years old though :dry:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=59383

[Rainwalker]

UPDATE: I got installer working...the only thing that worked was re-installing SP2.....thanks again to all...